Monday, August 29, 2011

.....but I love cooking...
It's always fun to try something new and experiment in the kitchen and Dave will pretty much eat anything so I can't really go wrong.

Before we moved to Hawaii, I still enjoyed being in the kitchen, but my outlook on food and cooking was completely different. In the past, I just cooked whatever with no thought to how it was prepared or the nutritional benefits to anything I was eating. I was willy-nilly in the kitchen. That all changed at the beginning of 2010. I needed to get out of the rut I was in and get back on track. I got my kick-start from John Keoni Subiono's 12-week transform program and I began looking up recipes online that included nutritional information as well as just paying more attention to what I was cooking, eating and putting into my body.

I am much more aware of what I am eating and how that is going to effect my body and thus, athletic performance. I was able to change my relationship with food. Now, I am eating for fuel instead of just eating to eat. Don't get me wrong, I still have a sweet tooth and give into my cravings when they arise, everything in moderation is ok by me. This journey has taught me a little bit more about food and how to use it to my advantage.

Some are paleo friendly, some are not, some are vegetarian, some are not....all are delicious!

Roasted cauliflower, garlic, turkey sausage and penne

not sure why all these pictures are sideways....but zucchini 'spaghetti' with veggies and turkey sausage

Sunday, August 28, 2011

I vowed after college, I would NEVER wake up before 6am to workout ever again. Well that didn't last too long. I'm up earlier on the weekends than I am when I have to go to work M-F (I suppose it doesn't help that I live on the other side of the island from the rest of the group). But, you know what, it's much easier to get up to go swim-bike-run than it is to go to work and it's always FUN!

Every weekend it seems like we (the boys) have the conversation about moving our workouts later into the day so we can sleep in, but once we get going those conversations stop and we're just having a blast getting in our miles!

Super fun and hilly weekend.....Here's a few pictures

Starting our run, much prettier than running in Ewa and much better running with friends

Beautiful views on our run....east side Oahu

pit stop at Makapu'u....Dave is taking the picture

Aaron, Frans, me and Dave

Love this! Dave and I half way through the run at the top of Makapu'u

As much as running up that hill was HARD, the payoff at the top made it worth it....and running up Diamond Head in December at mile 23 will be a cinch

Sunday, August 21, 2011

The weekend started out by sleeping in a bit on Friday morning and by sleeping in, I mean I made it until about 8am before I had to get out of bed because I couldn’t sleep any longer.Friday was a super relaxing day, decided to wait until later in the day to get my workout in so, once it started to cool down (low 80s, haha) again Dave and I decided to drive over to Ko’Olina and swim/run the lagoons then do my scheduled tempo run. I don’t usually do open water swims unless a race is involved, but I can make an exception for Ko’Olina because the lagoons are semi-blocked off from the open ocean so I don’t have to worry about the sharks. (I get paranoid that I’m going to get eaten). The swim was relatively easy, watching lots of fish swimming all over the place, going from lagoon to lagoon with a nice little jog in between.On the way back, Dave decided to find a big rock on the ocean floor and run with it as far as possible, drop it, resurface and then it was my turn.We did this for one of the lagoons and then I’d had enough and swam the rest of the way. The run was uneventful, Ko’Olina running is pretty boring, but we finished up and headed home for Friday night Pizza Night! Every Friday, Dave and I get pizza from Costco (the best pizza on the island) and this week it was delicious.Early to bed because I’m running Tantalus with the group in the morning.

TANTALUS!! Never ran Tantalus before and I was a little nervous driving into town (not for the fact that it was a 10 mile run, but that the first 5 miles were all uphill). 10 mile run; 5 miles up and 5 miles down.Kim, Aaron, Will, Bill and Harry have all ran and rode Tantalusbefore and were excited to welcome me into the club (Joy also showed up to see us off with her dog Mojo, so sweet!!). I don’t dislike hills, but 5 miles running all up-hill, I was worried.Well, everyone arrived and here goes nothing, we’re off.As soon as you start running, you’re going straight up the mountain, there’s no gradual climbing, you’re thrown right into it.2.5 miles down and we’re chatting away, it’s pretty difficult, but nothing I can’t handle. We’re going at a pretty steady rate, trying to come up with a team name and before I know it we’re at the top…how did that happen!? So it seems like 5 miles up the mountain wasn’t as bad as I expected.Now, 5 miles downhill, that was easy as pie! Next time, 2x Tantalus! After the run, Kim invited all of us back to her place for smoothies…let me tell you she makes a mean paleo smoothie and they hit the spot! After that, I headed home and it was off for a nice easy ride followed a nap.

Bill, Harry, Aaron, Will and I at the bridge on the way up

Headed back down...

Kim and I....she told me to bring water and of course I forgot to take it off for the picture....

Diamond Head in the distance

Team "TBD" (we've yet to come up with a good team name). Finishing up our Saturday morning run.

Sunday, Funday! I met Kim at Kapiolani Park for a ride. Everyone else that was going to come bailed, so it was just us girls. :-) Our plan was to ride to Makapu'u and back, a nice easy 30 mile ride. Well, we got to Makapu'u and since I'd never been much farther than that we decided to keep going out through the back roads of Waimanalo, it was beautiful (all except for the "fresh smell of the country"), no cars, quite, gorgeous scenery and open roads, perfect riding. I'm glad we went the extra miles, it's always nice to ride somewhere new. On our way back, we ran into a bit of a problem. We get to Hawaii Kai, the home stretch, hit a bump in the road, popped a tire, made a turn and Kim goes down! whoops. :-( She's alright, a little bruised up, but nothing serious. So, now we're on the side of the road, popped tire, bruised (and a little bloody), time to get to work. Great, changing a tire, something I'm not so good at; we get the tire off, take out the tube, put a little air in the new tube, get the tire back on, insert the CO2 and presto, the tire is ready to go (or so we thought). I touched the tire and POP! the new tube exploded, excellent, we thought we were good to go and now we have to start all over again. Final tube: here goes nothing. Someone came to our rescue (we totally could have done it ourselves, but we must have looked a mess on the side of the road, tools and bikes thrown all over the place) and showed us some handydandy new tricks and we were on our way. No going over bumps, slow around turns, just get back to the park. We made it, 50 miles, 2 broken tubes, 2 used CO2 cartridges, e21, some blood and bruises (thank goodness nothing serious), a few gels, but that much stronger! Of course we head off for a quick shake-out jog after the ride.